I've been build busy - Dunno what to call it yet.

[GilaMinumBeer]

Originally had it coined the Bruised Bagger but that doesn't really appeal to me. Looking for suggestions if you have any. I'm not really a bike/car naming kinda person but, i feel the effort in teh theme needs a call sign.

So, here it is;

I've owned this machine since the day it was taken out of it's crate in 2004 and have put a measly, pathetic, laughable, 15,000 miles on it.
On the day of purchase I added the TourMaster Cruiser II saddlebags shown as well as the TMCII tool bag over the headlight.

Recently, at a little over 14,000 miles the OEM Bridgestone Excedra rear tire finally blew and that was the beginning of a string of mods, replacements, and re-stylings that have led me to today.

Yeah, I know, 14,000 miles on stock tires. Crazy. It was actually the tube that gave up the ghost. dern thing split in two inside the tire. Stock tire still had good 1000 miles plus worth of tread left but, I erm "realized" it was time for new shoes.

Here it is as it has been from the day it left the showroom;

[GilaMinumBeer]

The following pages will document my progression over the next several days, months, or year ... (shudders)... of what I am currently calling my "Bruised Bagger".
Here it is immediately prior to my "over the christmas holiday near complete tear down".

;D

Little has changed since the showroom. The only visible change is the replacement of the stock 2-n-1 exhaust to a Vance and Hines straighshot HS system ran straight open. That is, no baffles.

I grew up around Hot Rods with glasspak exhaust. I like loud. I do not like obnoxious and I control my noise levels through throttle and gear play so that it's only slightly purrs while in neighborhoods but absolutely growls when opened up on highway.
What is not seen is the modfication of carburator jets. I added a DynoJet kit to change the pilot to a Kehein #52 and the main jet with a DJ140. Included in the kit was a softer spring and a new needle. Both installed per kit instructions (2nd slot on the needle, A/F screw 2 turns out) for a Stage 2 assembly. the snorkle from the stock airbox was removed completely.

And, finally, I installed a Tiny-Tach tachometer for giggles.

[GilaMinumBeer]

And here it is today;



naked, barren, stripped of all dignity. Nuthing but bones, a few scraggly nerve endings, and a drivetrain.

And here is the rest of it;







Makes me think of the joke about the quadrapeligic stripping down for sexy time with her one nighter and he says he's not sure if he should get in the bed or fvck the dresser.

[GilaMinumBeer]

okay, so there is the Preface.

Here is the basic, very basic, veeeery basic concept of where I intend to go with this project;



It's rough, I know. I took a image from my owners manual on where everything is located, scanned it into the PC, and edited it in paint to remove the leader arrows and text descriptions. then I proceeded to paint everything conceptualy to decide how far to go with the blackout. The hardbag is the worst. I had to trace a photo using a mouse which was a PITA. Not to mention the mess from all the cheese left over.

Wait, what?

okay, okay, bad joke Friday?

Moving on, not shown in the concept is where I intend to relocate the mirrors, front turn signals, and the rear turn signals. also not shown is that giant thing the license plate hangs from. I guess even Honda thought it was too attrocious to include in there drawings. ???

Nor are the added lighting fixtures and sissy bar shown.
But, we will see all that as this project progresses. Until then, here are a few more pics of what I've done so far;

Headlight Visor: ala Aced It. DIY from sheet metal.



AIS blockoff plates: DIY from bar stock aluminum.



Shocks opened up: ala Aced It.



Broke it: Broke off the rear shock bolt support being a tired dumbass while installing an aftermarket lowering kit.



Fixed it: After the break, I rushed to the innernets to price a new final drive cover. $501, lowest price, plus shipping. Ouch! And I'd still have to press a bunch of stuff out of the old and into the new. Tempted as I was to place the order, I refrained and slept on it.

Refreshed, the next day I engineered a fix. I have a neighbor who is an instructor at a vocational autoshop that has access to metal shop too. We took the OEM rear shock carrier bolt and threaded it on a lathe, matched a hex nut to the threading and sliced it in half, and then shaved the backside of the broken piece to make room for the hex nut.

The idea being that the lowering kit redirects the load toward the rear axle and the old mount becomes more of a stabilizer. the hex nut ensures that the lowering bracket is kept taught to the final drive cover and the broken bit was JB Welded ( highest strength) back into place for aesthetics. The added hex nut can still be gotten to with a box wrench so that the carrier bolt can be removed with a socket and as little stress as possible is placed back onto the cold joint for future repairs.

[GilaMinumBeer]

Edelbrock Pro-Flo: ala Aced It. I looked really hard at some of the old school style round air cleaners with the same depth but, this one really complements the V-Twin behind it. Photo makes it look cockeyed but it really is leveled with the top of the carburator. Later, it gets paint.



Hot rod braking: I'm not a huge fan of red but, red calipers always catch my eye. It's common today for sure but I see it as an old school salute to hot rodding.

I never imagined how big a PITA it was going to be to get the very tops of the brand name "Nissin" painted white without having the paint fill in the valleys between the letters. Took me 4 tries before i said "feck it, good enough" and shelved it as done.



Sorting for color: I am staying with the factory theme of colors, Black and Blue. But will be commiting a motorcycling sin by getting rid of all that ugly fecking chrome! When all is said and done, there will still be a few chrome accents. As it was before chrome was the primary color.

The parts on the mats are sorted by color. Candy Lazurite Blue for the top mat, Low gloss to Matte/Satin on the lower mat. the parts that cross between the two mats will have a mix of both colors.

Only problem is, parts keep moving from one mat to the other. :-X



Twisted: I discovered this little gem last night while sitting on a stool, smoking a pipe, and staring at the V-Twin asking myself if it's worth it to turn the remaining dozen bolts and just pull it out of the frame or to just leave it in the frame and paint it in place.

I have an arthritic back, a couple tears in my right rotator cuff, and a split bicep tendon. I never did make a decision.

I, actually, cannot believe I'd not seen this before. I mean, it's RIGHT THERE! I crashed this bike a few year ago (long story) laying it down in a greenbelt onm the right side of a turnpike off ramp. I saw back then that the shift pedal was bent. Took it off back then and bent it back. Never did look further down the system. This was even overlooked by the dealer shop that I took the bike too after the crash to have it post flight inspected for safety. The condition of that linkage might explain some of the hard shifting I'd dealt with over the years.

Oh well. I was able to get it twisted back to it's intended posture
but, after price checking, I've decided to just replace it with a new one.



Last night was exhausting: Yep. Pipe wrap. I have always like the look but it was never even a thought with stock exhaust. Aced It reminded me how much I like the look.



that is as far as I've gotten to date. More to come.

[GilaMinumBeer]

Moar!



Never have been a fan of how tall that passenger pillion seat is. Absolutely love the stock butt bucket and never have had any desire to replace it. But something has to be done about that pillion. I had a luggage rack at one time. Took it off because the peice of **** rusted out at the welds. Still have it and thought about working it back into this build but, my sons Kiernan (Keer-nan) and Tristan jump at every opportunity they can get to ride around the bnlock with dad. So, I decided to work that angle instead.



Looks okay so far.



Another coat, or two, I think. Hardest part off all of this is getting in between the cooling fins of the cylinder head without laying in so much it runs. I have considered draining the oil so I can lay it down to attend to that detail.



Anyone got some pepto? Looks like I got the runs.



Notice the repair doesn't look so "repaired" anymore.



Can you dig?

Hard to tell in the photo here, but the paint laid down so perfectly on this Keihein it was alomost like it was meant to be.

Plasti-dip! Yeah, I know "Gila, I thought you weren't fond of red?"
I'm not, but I decided to do the entire brake system (front and rear) in red. So far, it looks good.

Rear brake arm.

Taping up the numerous orifices was a real bitch! Getting the hose off between the cylinder head and the manifold was surprisingly troublesome. I can only hope putting it back in won't be a pain.

That wee slot down toward the bottom of the frame had me pretty concerned. Enough that I went through my manual to make certain it's supposed to be there. Took me a minute, high from paint fumes, to realize that it might be a pry point for separating teh crankcase halves. Turns out, it is. Thank GOD casue I was getting worried I had a real problem.

Seen from any other angle, no matter what light, the whole engine (cept the underbits) looks to be well covered. I hadn't even thought about needing more paint until these photos. this sole angle reveals that I need another coat. Thank GOD it's enamel and I don't need wait a week for the paint to cure since I am beyond the recoat window. Now, I just need decide if I want to clearcoat it or not. VHT list the engine enamel clearcoat as an optional step. Part of me is thinking yes, it needs clearcoat for more protection. another part of me is worried it'll add too much gloss. I used VHT Mettalic Engine Enamel "Black Pearl". It's GORGEOUS in good light. Very subtle hints of mettalic glint. I tried to capture that in photo but this crappy Canon PAS can't get the details through. And if I use the DSLR the files are way too large.

The "Done" shelf. Pathetic. But getting better.



What's this? Can you guess? Final product to come later with description of how it got there.

I have always been uncomfortable with how deeply thr front end nosedives at braking. Hoping that will change some with this. Hopefully not so much that I can't get the front weight loaded for traction. Not a lowered kit. Just better fork springs.

$150+ and they give you sewer pipe for spacers? I don't think so. I'm sure it's fine and all, but even Honda went so far as to use steel tube for the pre-load spacers. The Progressive spring seats were quite a bit more hefty than OEM tho. So, I used those.

Left, OEM spring. Right, aftermarket. Taller, heavier guage, tighter wind.

I was taken-a-back a bit when this oil first poured out. Looks more like laundry detergent than ATF that was stock. In addition to the heavier springs i replaced the upper oil seal and dust wipers. Honda called for 470ml of oil per fork which was about 100ml too much to agree with the 4.1 In depth (compressed). In the end it came 4". OEM called for 10wt and I used 15wt. Progressive spec'd out 3.2" long pre-load spacers and I went with 3.5" for conveinience. Between the longer, heaveier springs, the heavier oil, and the longer spacers, the front end shouldn't have any reasons to feel "sqooshy" anymore. Less Caddillac, more Supra'ish. To the left is the OEM pre-load tube cut down and deburred for the aftermarket springs.


Another teaser, to be revealed later. I've mentioned these before. Here I am just doing a little mod work for my application and making some, IMO, improvements to the design for better performance.
That is all for now. Aside from me working the tank. 8 years can really lay in some fine line scratches and oxidation on a clearcoat. I thought about starting off with a very light wetsand but opted for Turtle Wax Heavy Duty rubbing compound instead. Followed by some Meguires gloss finish polish and 3 coats of Turtle Wax Super Hard Shell.
I didn't get all the age out of the original clearcoat but, the end result brought the finish back to a mirror like shine. Maybe later I'll strip the wax off and try to work the scratches out again. It'll take a wetsand to get it right. Never done that before and I admit I am a bit nervous about the idea because I didn't plan on refinishing the tank and don't have enough Color-Rite paint. That **** wasn't cheap either.
I have to sand down the black section of both fenders to refinish them. After that is done I'll have some time in with the paper and be better adapted to wetsanding a finished product.

[GilaMinumBeer]

Prior to my clutch spring bolt disaster I accomplished;



Masked and ready.



But theres still one more. Tedious work I tell ya.



Yup. I forked this one up good.



It's brother too.



Marvelous.



OEM left, Barnett right. New clutch springs.



Very little difference here.



Pulse generator module and contact gear.



A distraction. So far, I like. We'll see how it looks once everything is back together.



4 degree mod complete.



Refinishing these wheels will be a 6 step process. 1.) Clean and degrease with Purple Power then Palmolive, 2.) Mask, 3.) Scuff the hell out of everything. For that I used emery cloth., 4.) Solvent cleaner, 5.) Prime with self etching primer. I used nearly 1 can per wheel to ensure I get a good heavy mil thickness.

I read somehwere that the only thing that sets a shop paint job apart from a rattle can job (aside from proper prep) is how built up the paint is. Shops usually end up with a 1.5 mil thickness whereas "most" (single pass) rattle can jobs only have .5 mil at best. It was further said that the keys to durability are; good prep, proper materials for the application, material thickness.



SEP. I've used 22 cans of this stuff so far.



My ultra fancy, high tech, precision built, rim painting harness.







I worked out those dents as best as I could with a home made (from a small pry bar) body spoon and crescent wrench but was still not satisfied with the end result so, I resorted to body filler. First coat laid on thick after scuffing the shine off the metal with emery cloth.



First wheel primed. I kinda like the color but, mine is NOT a antique military themed bike. alway wanted one of those tho'.



First primer coat on most everything else.



Painting on the floor SUCKED. I ended up rigging some wires from a couple big ladder I have hanging off the garage ceiling. MUCH better. You can see the fans I rigged in the background. I have a gas fired furnace and water heater in a closet in this garage and I needed to make certain I get the paint fumes out quickly. While spraying, I raise the door just higher than the fans to pull as much as I can out while I am producing overspray.



Rear wheel drying between coats. I always waited at least 10 minutes between coats even tho this paint doesn't have a recoat window.







Filled and sanded. Should be very little, if any, trace of the original dents once all is done.



Finished these off last night. I think they look awesome. But, it was a tedious amount of work for something so barely visible once the bike is back together. They do say that GOD is in the details. I guess i'll start calling him/her/it sparky from now on.



Another teaser. Looking like this may cause me to eat my words. won;t know for certain til much later tho'. Need to look into how to get those swirls out. I'm thinking Mequires.

[GilaMinumBeer]

Aight, weekend "progress".



Workbench. Not as cluttered as before but now it's covered in notes to keep me in line with what was intended. An attempt to "reign in" my OCD. Too often I change directions spur of the moment and a project drags out cause I don't stay on track. Reality is, I usually don;t like the direction I changed to and then have to go back to the original concept after the fact.





Front and rear wheel after basecoat. plan has always been to add an accent to the outer reveal with the purple OEM color. The black turned out perfect after being baked overnight. Looks a bit dusty here, think I need to clean teh camera cause everything gets covered during any spray operations. I will say I was a bit taken back by how the clear would "pearl" or "dust bead" as it was applied. Like the overspray on sections behind the target area would dust up from dried paint. Had me a bit worried. But fater cooking the wheel overnight with 3 heaters and a blanket tent the "dust" had gone away.





Clearcoated the frame and engine. You can see the "dusting" effect here too on the back side of the fender rail near the left rear shock and in various spots on the frame. Left alone and heat cured overnight, it went away. Still not sure why it was doing that. Maybe the air was too wet? Too dry? Too cold? **** if I know.



Hard bags taped off and factory gloss coat scuffed off.



First coat.



Third coat



First coat of clear.



Finished? Maybe. The color match looked good here under flourescents and a 150 watt incandescent drop light but, how would they look in teh sun? I'd have to wait until the next day (Sunday) to find out.



Bags done I moved on to the fenders. The stock black section of paint was pretty worn overall and ****** in more than a few places so, I masked off the second color and sanded all the black and re-finished. Turned out well. I thought...

[GilaMinumBeer]

Okay, more pics so's I don't need to GTFO.



A poorly shot pic of the front wheel in it's current state. I intentionally shot without the flash to underexpose and thus hide all the details of gummed up black. I know the blue/purple line is not very prominent and, it was never meant to be. But, it does "pop" more in the sunlight. As do the fvck ups.

Now, just imagine it with wide whites and red brake disc and caliper.









Tonight was a particularly prideful night. Long awaited and very much agonized given the lack of available paint, a little bit of experience with said products poor coverage, and the foresight of how many "little things" still needed to be "bruised" to theme. Thankfully, they all got their bruisings with nearly a half can of paint left to spare. The front wheel accent only took 2 coats each side and used less than a quarter can so, hopefully, once the rear is done I should have a quarter can left for potential touch-ups during the install.

These parts are drying before I lay on clearcoat. I'll give them 2 or 3 layers of that and then it's lights out. They'll hang and sleep overnight and then get moved to a safe place to cure the full 5 to 7 prior to install. The crankcase cover, lower rear crankcase cover, and radiator grille will get another color application in black. And the clutch cover and the crankcase cover will get some brand highlighting in caliper red to match the brake systems.





I took painstaking efforts to ensure even coverage on these two assholes. Held my worklight just outside of the spray pattern to ensure I could see the paint lay down evenly and properly. Considering that, more than anything else I've painted in the Blue/Purple, I'll be looking down at these two stinkholes each and every ride and I'd like to be able to focus more on the road ahead rather than having my OCD target in on each and every wave, pitmark, primer bleed, or paint blob.

Ha. Ha.

[GilaMinumBeer]

That is everything up to date. Previous posts were cut/paste from elsewhere, I'll do my best to keep this up to date as teh build progresses.

With all the blue/purple laid down i can move more efficiently with the rest of teh parts. All the paint for those is local sourced and of various shades of black. I kept meticulous notes about what part gets which application and sort out the parts each night prior to beginning work so that everything else can be properly covered to protect from overspray.

Regardless, prior to install I am going to have to polish each and every part to a showroom shine.

Once everything is finished, that is all the paint laid down, all the fabrications complete, everything cured, I will go silent through the build back and the final post will be the full on reveal.

Keep in mind I am still taking suggestions on a theme name that stays in kind with the Black and Blue/Blue on Black theme of the bike.